Wonderland Reincarnated
by Spazzkitty
Summary: The kingdom of Wonderland has waited a long time for its true sovereign, the reincarnation of Alice Liddell. They weren't really expecting a naive, scatterbrained, 17-year-old from planet Earth. Oh well. Eventual AliceXHuman Cheshire. DISCONTINUED
1. Prolouge

Hello, everyone! This is Spazzkitty, with my first story Wonderland Reincarnated! If I make any errors, please let me know. Please review if you can- heck, you can even flame if you wanna. Without further ado, here's what you came to see!

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Prologue

Everybody thought they understood sweet, innocent Alice LaChance until the day she blew up the chemistry lab.

Alice was a 4.0 kid- she studied for every test and didn't forget a single piece of homework. She was naturally suited to memorization as some people are- most facts just stuck in her head somehow. She really didn't have any friends, but it wasn't because of anything she had done- Alice was impossible to hate. She had a sweet, generous personality and curious, sky-blue eyes that were easily surprised. The reason she had no friends was because she had a very solitary and formal disposition. She was friendly, but whenever anybody tried to talk to her, she would smile sweetly, but reply in a formal detached way. She always sat alone at lunch, calmly eating her ham-and-cheese sandwich on rye with mustard, content to be at her own table until I came.

I used to sit at the table next to hers, eating my lunch and chatting with my friends. It hadn't occurred to me that Alice may have been lonely until one Tuesday during March. I was talking with Jay, my best friend, when my eyes happened to wander slightly to the left. I saw Alice, pausing with her sandwich halfway to her mouth. She was watching a pair of twin brothers, Jake and Alex, laughing and whacking each other on the back and generally acting like immature freshman boys. Alice was watching them and I was about to turn back to my food when I saw a wistful expression cross her face. She looked so impossibly lonely in that moment that I felt like crying. Instead, I grabbed my lunch tray and moved to her table. She started in surprise, but smiled a little shyly at me.

"Hi, Blaire," she said softly. I grinned in surprise, realizing that she remembered my name even though I had never spoken to her. "Hi, Alice!" I felt Jay's eyes burning a hole in my back and knew that I would have to sit on the bus alone this afternoon, but it was worth it to see the look of delight currently on Alice's naïve face. It was three days later that she blew up the lab.

There was a fire drill- the day was March 17th. The air was chilly- not exactly cold, but not comfortable in my short-sleeved shirt. I stood, rubbing my hands on my arms and trying to get them warmer, kicking a pebble along the parking lot. Jay was still hostile about me ditching her during lunch three days ago, but she must have figured I suffered enough of her refusing to talk to me because she was almost friendly towards me. The entire school was out in the parking lot, chattering idly with everyone else when the explosion happened. There was a huge boom, and billowing black smoke started to pour out of the eastern side of the school. Despite our teachers telling us to 'remain calm' and 'stay put', the students rushed to find the source of the boom.

Turning the corner, we all saw Alice, standing with her hands behind her back, observing the chemistry lab which was roaring with flames. She didn't look guilty or surprised or malicious- she looked simply curious and interested in the fire roaring dangerously close to her. Her light blond hair flew behind her in the smog, wrapping around itself and her legs, tangling and untangling like a banner in the wind. She turned when we raced around the corner and even the teachers were shocked.

"Ms. LaChance!" One of the teachers snapped when he finally found his voice "Did you do this?"  
"Yes, I did," She responded politely.

"Why?" he asked, dumbfounded. Alice only smiled sweetly.

When the police came, they were surprised as well. Not only did Alice make polite conversation with them, but she confessed to blowing up the lab single-handedly.

"It wasn't hard- just combined a few chemicals and there it was. Wasn't the fire beautiful?" After that, the police took her away.

That was the last any of us ever saw of Alice Marigold LaChance.

Not surprisingly, rumors spread like wildfires about poor Alice. Apparently, she hadn't revealed very much about her past and the Gossip Vultures in the school could tell a feast when they stumbled across it. She had a little sister named Lillian Erin, who was home-schooled and only ten years old. Lily was an albino, which is why she didn't attend public school- Kids had teased the poor child until she cried. Alice's mother had been flighty and a 'Peace and love' hippie. She had walked out on the LaChance family two weeks after Lillian's birth. Alice's father had been deeply smitten with his wife, so when the flighty woman left, he didn't stand a chance. He had died two months later of a broken heart and a car accident which was a direct result of his loss of reality. Alice, only seven at the time, had moved around with her sister as their only other family lived in Britain. Whenever people found out about the seven-year-old girl caring for her baby sister, the police would look for them and they would have to move on to the next place. But apparently that wasn't the worst of the gossip.

"She left the police station!" announced Sara the following Wednesday. My table stopped eating during lunch to hear this juicy piece of info, knowing instantly who she was talking about. Sara was the daughter of an officer, so all this information was straight from the horse's mouth. "I'm serious- just up and left. I guess everybody in the station trusted her because she acted so normal. They left her alone for a second to go get her files. She was gone when they came back."  
"What happened?" Somebody asked breathlessly. Sara grinned, relishing her moment.

"We reviewed the security tapes. What happened was she stood up, apologized to them through the security camera with a heartfelt apology, broke the bars over the window with a kick, picked the lock with a hairpin and jumped through the window."

A stunned silence filled the table. "Apologized?" Jay asked skeptically.

"Yep. She ran directly up to the camera, bowed to it and said 'I'm sorry Officer Green and Officer McCoun, but I can't go to jail. Please forgive me.' Then she left." As everybody began excitedly discussing this new predicament, I sat for a while, lost in thought. I stared at the now empty table where Alice had sat only a few days ago. I could only imagine the sadness in her sweet, round eyes as the rumors multiplied around her, about her and her family. Was I the only one feeling awful because of the spiteful gossip? Probably. Was Alice guilty of blowing up the lab? Again, there was a good chance. But I simply couldn't imagine the gentle, innocent teen I knew as a delinquent, despite all the evidence to the contrary. I could only wonder where she was now, her and her mysterious little sister. I turned to look at the window, noticing the grey-blue sky and the clouds that indicated the incoming downpour of rain. Suddenly, a figure across the street caught my eye.

Under closer inspection, I noticed billowing blonde waves of hair. They reached the girl's knees. Alice? I saw her wave across the street to me. Quickly, I turned towards the table, to see if anybody else had seen it. Nobody else was even paying attention. I turned back almost instantly to the road. The street was deserted and there was no sign of anything living under the flickering streetlight on the corner.


	2. Chapter 1

Chapter One

Alice walked casually down the street as if she had all the time in the world at her disposal. Her stroll was easy and relaxed, which was the exact opposite of how you would expect it to be, considering she just escaped the police. However, this secretly was the twenty-first time she had escaped from cops and the whole procedure was becoming very predictable.

Asleep on her back was sweet little Lillian. The albino had taken the news well considering they often had to uproot themselves and move to another town. She hadn't asked any questions as Alice had expected her to, but silently packed her things (not that there were many to pack) and set off.  
"Why did we have to leave?" Lilly's soft voice addressed the question, her sound muffled by the soft blue jacket on Alice's back. Alice was so surprised at the noise that she almost dropped her sister and had to shift her hold on the girl riding piggyback. The teen could have sworn that the ten-year-old was sleeping.  
"Same reason we always do, sweetie," Alice mumbled wearily. She hadn't started the blaze, but this exact scenario had happened before as well and no matter what Alice said, she was completely ignored. Why not at least confess to the crime if it all ended the same? Alice was tired of wasting her breath trying to explain.  
"You mean the card men?" Her half-asleep passenger enquired. "Was it the ace of spades or the seven of diamonds?"  
"The Ace." She answered. The ace and the seven had been the primary culprits in forcing the LaChances to move. The pair wore matching jackets with their card imprinted on the back. Their most common pursuers were the two previously mentioned, but they had seen at least five others trying to make life more difficult for the girls.

"Oh. Why won't they just leave us alone?"

Alice could only chuckle darkly to herself. She wanted to snap, to use sarcasm. To turn on the fragile child and scream, _'I don't know! I don't have all the answers! I don't! I don't! If I knew, would we be wandering like vagabonds, just waiting for the next attack to send us off again?' _The words beat against Alice's mouth, eager to get out, to wound Lilly and make her stop assuming Alice was an oracle or that she knew everything. But the desire to shout dissolved when Lillian placed her small arms around Alice's neck.

Lilly didn't mean it- Alice knew that. The poor girl just wanted to settle down and make some real friends and to stop having to jump from place to place all the time. Deep down, Alice wanted that too. But she had to be strong for her baby sister. They were both a pair, all alone in the world. Lilly needed nobody but Alice and Alice only relied on Lillian.

"How far are we goin' this time?" Lilly mumbled, drifting back into sleep and losing consciousness quickly. Despite the fact that the little girl was probably sound asleep, Alice felt she deserved an answer anyway, so respond Alice did.

"I don't know, Lilly. As far as we need to. We'll probably just bus-hop until we get out of state lines. I have enough money saved from when we worked in that diner down the street to at least support us until I can find another job." That was more than was really necessary for Alice to tell somebody who was sleeping and couldn't even hear her, but the words poured out like a bubbling river. It was almost as if Alice herself needed reassurance that everything would be alright. "It won't take long, maybe a few days at most. We're super close to the border- going into New Jersey should be easy from this point. Just a hop, skip and jump, Lilly. We're so close to it. So close." She paused for a moment to gather her thoughts in the silence, broken only by her sister's soft breathing and the annoying whine of the cicadas in the summer night. She stayed silent for a few minutes, tasting the moist, crisp air on her tongue and hearing all the sounds of summer played around her like a symphony.

After about ten minutes of walking, she came to a bus stop sign placed next to an old red bench with chipped paint. She set her bag with all her personal items next to her on the bench, and swung the still-sleeping Lilly around so that the albino girl was resting on Alice's lap instead. After only a few minutes of waiting, a blue metal bus pulled up to her. Alice took a slightly uncomfortable look at the windows of the bus on which were carved a hangman game, a girl's number, and several profane words, but as they had nowhere else to go, she gently woke Lilly and they got on the bus.

The first person to greet them was the bus driver, a plump, motherly woman in her late forty's. She looked at the two in concern- both carried duffel bags and looked rumpled and exhausted. She didn't ask any questions, but refused to take Alice's money, insisting that the ride was free. Alice summoned her energy to flash the woman a thankful, sunny smile and began to lead her little sister to the first seat behind the driver. The doors creaked shut with a foreboding shudder and the bus began to trek forward. Alice took the chance to look around the bus, only to discover the bus was totally empty except for three people in the back seat- a girl and two boys. The girl was a tiny thing- very short and slim, with light brown skin. She also had black hair pulled into two curly pigtails. Her brown eyes were gleaming and bright, although that may have been due to the Dunkin Donuts cup in her hand. She was wearing a black hooded t-shirt with a short black skirt, black Mary Janes, and white tights. Her legs were crossed and she was chatting animatedly with the guy on her right.

The guy the girl was talking to was very different from her, in both looks and personality. He was incredibly pale and lanky, reaching about Alice's height. He wasn't fat but he wasn't paper-thin either- he was about average weight. His hair was a dirty blonde, and insanely unkempt. It stuck up all over the place and effectively covered his eyes, an odd combination with the dark green baseball cap on his head. He was wearing plain deep blue jeans and a forest green jacket over a white collared shirt. As opposed to the little dark girl bouncing in excitement, he was slouched in the chair apathetically, only nodding vaguely to the girl's endless stream of comments and keeping a firm grip on his cup of coffee. He impatiently brushed his bangs out of his eyes to show they were a pale blue, almost icy in color.  
The third boy in the trio was on the blond boy's right and on the window seat. His hair was a light brown and long, pulled into a low, short ponytail. He had two gold hoops in each ear and was taller than Alice was by probably two inches or more. His shirt was black and sleeveless, with long khaki pants and a black wristband on each wrist. He was resting his chin on his hand and staring out the window, but turned when he felt Alice's curious gaze. His eyes were a deep golden color, much to Alice's surprise, but as she was accustomed to weirder things, she only smiled sweetly at him. He looked her up and down, apparently satisfied by Alice's long blonde hair, deep sapphire eyes, and thin figure. He shot her a smirk, but dense little Alice was clueless as to why he was staring. Lily, however, wasn't. She had noticed the older teen staring at her big sister and instantly was filled with rage- Lily had always been unusually perceptive. She popped her head over the seat and glared angrily at the brown-haired boy. Noticing her, his face slid from cocky to shocked, then back to confident. He turned to his companions, got their attention, and then whispered something to them. Then, all three turned to look at Lily, and something about their expressions made Alice's adrenaline pulse in her veins and her hold on the albino in her lap tighten.  
"I don't trust them, Alice," Lily said softly, without changing her expression. They had mastered this type of unnoticeable talking while trying to hide from the card-people that had tried repeatedly to kill the orphaned pair.  
"Neither do I. I think we'll change buses next stop. Do you have all your stuff?" Alice murmured back, keeping the sweet smile on her face and gazing out the window. The people in the back also seemed tenser- the thin girl didn't talk or giggle anymore, and the blonde looked completely awake and was watching the two runaways out of the corner of his eye. Lily looked up at the ceiling, watching the blinking lights at the front of the bus, then sighed in boredom and looked back down at her shoes. Only her older sister understood that the innocent movement was a nod meant only for Alice to decipher.

Alice began drumming her fingers anxiously on her leg as she saw the next stop come into view. She regretted leaving the bus and her free ride on it, but her protectiveness for Lillian overpowered her frugality. The blue-eyed girl leapt into action the second the vehicle ground to a creaky stop. She grabbed both bags and slung one over each shoulder and strolled briskly to the opening door, Lily bouncing on her heels. The trio in the back clearly weren't expecting such a quick move and hurried to gather all their things together. The bus driver tried to say something sympathetic to the pair, but they were both already out the folding door before the woman had the chance.  
***

Alice leapt off the bus stairs in one bound without even bothering to look back. She could tell Lily was following from the gentle pad of her sister's soft-soled shoes slightly behind her and to the left. She already was sure the suspicious people on the back of the bus were planning to follow them and looking back would only make timid Alice panic beyond belief. Also, looking back may have made her slow down and then they would surely be caught. So Alice sped up to a brisk walk- fast, but not enough so that they would give the impression she was aware of the pursuers. Her blonde hair was fluttering behind her and looked almost ethereal in the silvery moonlight as the thin figure began walking along the roadside followed by a small, albino girl who appeared to glow in the moonbeams and, farther away, a trio of people cautiously behind them.  
"They're catching up, Alice. We won't be able to outrun them."  
Alice bit her lip. "How close?"  
"Only ten yards and closing in."  
Alice signaled with her hand that they were going to turn around and they did simultaneously. Alice and Lily smiled cheerily at the shocked trio.

"Hello," Lily said, pure sweetness dripping off each word. "Care to explain why you've been following us?"


	3. Chapter 2

Hello! You should know the author by now, so I won't introduce myself. Special thanks to Haigha3 and DizzyAlice for reviewing. You guys rock!

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Chapter 2

The two boys were gaping at each other like fish out of water, but the girl recovered much quicker. "Hello. I'm May. This is Matt and Chesh." Her smile held as much warmth as Alice's.

Alice stopped smiling and sighed. "Look, we've kinda been through a very stressful day, so if you don't mind, tell us what you want and please leave."

The brunette boy- Chesh- took another step towards Alice and Lily, despite the warning look Matt shot him. "How does this sound? We need the albino, and we'll take her by force if you don't let her go peacefully."

Lily growled, but Alice pushed her little sister behind her. "How does _this_ sound? She's my sister, and I'm not letting her go without a fight."

Matt sighed. "A fight with a girl? How boring."

"What's that supposed to mean?" May snapped.

"Nothing, Nothing."

Chesh smirked at her. "If you notice, there's two of you and three of us. Plus, you have a kid on your side. You'll never win."

Lily stepped forward. "I'm not going with you! If we're going down, we're going down fighting."

"Have it your way," Matt said, almost apologetically. "May, grab the kid. Chesh, grab the girl."

Chesh grabbed Alice's arms and pinned them behind her back, despite her best attempts to twist free. "You're a pretty little thing, aren't you?" He whispered softly. "Feisty, too. It's almost a shame..."

"It'll be a shame when I rip your head open, devil spawn," snapped Alice. Usually she could hold her composure better than this, but she was too frightened for Lily and stressed, tired, and completely fed up with how infuriating her life was. She could hear Chesh chuckling behind her and resisted the urge to start cussing until her tongue turned black.

"S-stay away from me! I mean it!" Lily said as she backed away from May. She clearly meant it to sound threatening, but it didn't. It only sounded miserable and scared.

"I'm really sorry, sweetie, but you're the only one for the job. If I didn't have to..." She trailed off guiltily when Lily's eyes began to well up with tears. "Aw, please don't cry! We wouldn't do this if it wasn't completely necessary! I hate having to be the bad guy!" Lily desperately turned to Alice, whose eyes were also leaking.

"Lissy, I'm sc-scared." With those words spoken, Alice completely and utterly snapped.

As a general rule, Lily wasn't a dependant child. She prided herself on her resourcefulness and her ability to take care of herself. Even at the precious age of ten, she already understood that Alice had a hard time taking care of them both, so the little girl did her best to not trouble her older sister. Even so, sometimes Lily needed some kind of support from her older sister. The first and last time Lily had called Alice 'Lissy' was when, at five, she had finally gotten up the nerve to ask why they didn't have a mommy or a daddy. Alice wanted desperately to lie to the simple question, but she couldn't think of one and also didn't approve of lying anyway. Alice calmly explained that Mommy had walked out on the family-not because she didn't love them-and Daddy had died when Lily was a baby. Surprisingly, Lily hadn't cried. She merely looked sadly up at Alice and said, "I'm lonely, Lissy." Then Alice's heart shattered- she held Lily tightly and told her not to worry because they had each other and Lily was all the family Alice needed. Lily had nodded and clutched onto Alice's shirt until she fell asleep. It seems strange that the event that happened five years ago could have such an effect on Alice now, but the nickname 'Lissy' was something Lily had used when she really needed her big sister. It represented a time when Lily felt confused, insecure, and sad. And hearing it now made Alice's protective instinct kick in.

"Let me go!" She snapped, kicking backwards and managing to hit Chesh's knee. His knee buckled and he lost his balance momentarily, which gave her the opportunity to free an arm. She elbowed him hard in the stomach and he released her other arm. While he was gasping for breath, Alice slipped away from him and began running towards May, who was trying her best to restrain Lily. Lily was kicking and squirming and putting up a fight, but May was strong despite her small size and was able to basically keep her tied down. Matt ran after Alice and stood in between her and Lily, but she gave him a sharp kick to his shin and he collapsed. She grabbed May's wrist and twisted it painfully behind the girl's back until she let out a choking gasp and released the albino. Then Alice let go and grabbed Lily, glaring around the clearing.

"Anybody else?" She said testily. "Anyone else want to try to take my baby sister away?" Her furious stare was met with a groan from Matt.

"We're really sorry, but we can't give up," May said, sounding like she was choking back tears. "Everything depends on her. If that girl isn't on our side, it could mean destruction for us all."

"Why?" Lily said, peeking out from behind her older sister. Nobody answered.

"You know, if you needed us to help you, you could have tried asking," Alice added with a sigh. "You didn't have to stalk us and try to kidnap Lily."

May chuckled weakly. "Yeah. Sorry about that."

"Won't make that mistake again," Matt said feebly.

"You caught me by surprise. That's all." Chesh glared stubbornly at Alice, who shrugged sheepishly and shot him a docile smile. That seemed to calm him down a little.

"Anyway, we're going to get this straight right now. You have five minutes to plead your case." Lily said coldly, looking around disdainfully at the three strangers sitting up on the forest floor.

"Plead our what?" May asked in utter confusion.

"She means," Alice explained, "that you have five minutes to explain why you were after us, what you want, and attempt to convince us to go along with whatever your ulterior motive is, or we'll just leave and you'll never see us again, god willing."

Matt and Chesh exchanged glances. "You're kidding, right?" asked Matt. "Why do we have to explain ourselves to you in five minutes?"

"Four minutes and twenty-eight seconds," Lily corrected in a sing-song voice, watching the broken front of her watch with glee.

May and Chesh looked at Matt who glared at them with irritation. "Fine. We need Lily. She has to help us. The end." Lily raised her eyebrow, Alice cocked her head, and May slapped her looked nervously at Lily, who was not looking amused. "What he means is-"

"Two minutes fifty-two seconds."

"-that we need-"

"Fifty seconds."  
"-your help to-"

"Forty-eight seconds."  
"WILL YOU STOP THAT PLEASE?"

"He's right, Lil. At least let him explain."  
"...Fine. But you're down to two minutes exactly. And TALK FASTER! You're wasting five minutes of my life."

"Alright, well, we need Lily. We're looking for people who can help save Won- er, the place where we're from. We think she may be someone who can help us. We don't really need you, but she-"

"Time!" Lily cheered. "Time, time, TIME!"

Alice looked thoughtful. "Hm... Maybe."  
Lily gaped and yanked on her sister's ear. "ALICE!"  
"Ouuuch! What?"  
"You're not seriously going to hand me over to KIDNAPPERS, are you?"

"Of course not! I only..." Alice trailed off and Lily followed her gaze. The three odd teenagers were staring openly at the sisters. Matt looked shocked, Chesh looked disbelieving, and May looked wildly hopeful.

"Alice?" May asked, her voice quivering and large brown eyes gleaming in excitement. "Your real name is ALICE?"

"Now May, don't get excited. The card soldiers were broadcasting her death. You got the message- didn't you hear them gloat? They killed the reincarnation in an awful explosion," Chesh said slowly.

"An explosion? Oh! You mean those stupid jerks with the card patterns on their jackets who blew up my chemistry lab? Yeah, it wasn't pretty. The ends of my hair got all singed," Alice said, sadly examining the tips of her hair that were grey with ash.

A grin began to slowly creep across Matt's normally stoic face as it dawned on him. "Why didn't I see it before? The blonde hair, the blue eyes..."

"How she's so innocent! And how she met the white rabbit before anyone else!" squealed May, grabbing Matt and pulling him into a bone-crushing hug. "We're SAVED!" Chesh whistled and Alice giggled, covering Lily's eyes. Realizing their position instantly, May shoved Matt away and pretended nothing happened, ignoring the pink flush on her cheeks. Matt pulled his hat down low, but failed to hide the fact that he was bright red to the roots of his blond hair.

"Can't we just focus on Alice?" Matt mumbled. Chesh smirked.

"What about me now?" Alice asked, planting both hands on her hips.  
"Does this mean Alice can come with me to wherever you're going?" Lily blurted simultaneously, beginning to smile eagerly.

"Does that mean you're willing to come with us to wherever we're going?" countered Chesh.

"Well," Lily said, twisting a strand of her long, extremely light hair, "I figure that we really don't have anywhere to go besides to another state until the card-people realize we're alive and try to kill us again. For, like, the three hundredth time. And since you want Alice _and _me to go with you, we'll be together anyway and you asked quite nicely, so what would be the harm?"

A brief silence followed this practical speech, until Alice broke it with a beaming grin. "That's my sister!" she said proudly, lifting up Lily and spinning her in a circle. Lily giggled.

"Alice, put me down!" she said between laughs. While this exchange was going on, the three outsiders were whispering among themselves.

"I like them," May declared. "Alice seems nice, and Lily is adorable."

"Agreed," said Matt softly. "I'm just curious to see how Lily will get along with Damon."

The three exchanged glances. "Lilly will kill him." Chesh said with a small laugh. The others nodded.

They broke their small discussion to find that Alice had finally put down Lily and the two were staring at them. "So," Alice said in her sweet, curious voice. "Where exactly are we going?"

Matt looked at the other two to find them both looking at him. With a sigh, he stepped forward. "Wonderland."

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You know the drill! Read and review please! Thank you!


	4. Chapter 3

And so we're already up to Chapter 3. Sorry, this one took a longer time to write. PLEASE FORGIVE ME. Mad love to my reviewers: Haigha3, DizzyAlice, The Lord's Fallen Angel, James Birdsong, Arora HickoryEye, and Reality Switcher. You're all so nice! So as a reward, I give you… A stuffed Lily!

Lily: WHAT NOW? O_o

Juuust kidding! Read and enjoy! I don't own Alice in Wonderland, but I wish I did! Does that count for anything?

Chapter 3

The reactions to the previous little bombshell were probably reversed to what somebody would expect. Lily raised an eyebrow and said, "Are you on drugs?" Alice smiled brightly.

"Really? How awesome! We're all gonna go to Wonderland?!" Lily rolled her eyes at her sister's gullibility.

"So let me get this straight, because I think we all need to think for a second about how insane this sounds. You meet us on a bus we have to get on because we're constantly getting attacked and killed by insane gangs with card symbols on their jackets. You follow us, because somehow you get the impression I'm someone you're looking for and you don't get the notion that stalking a ten year old girl and her sister is wrong OR sketchy in the least bit. Then you try to forcefully abduct me and my sister has to beat you up because her mental state almost snapped like a twig under the stress. Then you decide that for some reason you need her too, so we decide to go together and everything SEEMS to be okay until you reveal that somehow in your drug-induced fantasies you are planning to take us to WONDERLAND, a world that was made by a possibly pedophilic London man before modern toilets were invented and one probably brought about by a little too much LSD. Do you seriously expect me not to question this at all?"

There was another stunned pause in which Chesh whispered, "Yeah, she'll definitely kill Damon when they meet."

"And ANOTHER thing! Who's this Damon that I'm supposed to kill? Why do you want me and Alice? Is this some stupid sick joke? Why can't you just find someone else? What did you mean by calling Alice a reincarnation? How did you know Alice and I WERE whatever in hell's bells we apparently are?"

"Language, Lily..." Alice warned calmly.

"-In heck's bells we apparently are?" During this speech, Lily had advanced threateningly on a very confused Matt until she was staring angrily at him eye to eye, and poking her finger into his chest.

"All will be revealed when we get to Wonderland," he said, slightly unnerved. Lily's red eyes narrowed, proving that was not the right thing to say. Without a word, she grabbed his wrist and flipped him over her shoulder so he was lying winded on the ground.

"I am not going ANYWHERE with you until you answer EVERY ONE of my questions."

"LILY!" Alice said reproachfully. "I brought you to over fifty karate dojos with YOUR PROMISE that it would be, and I quote, 'For self-defense only'."

"This IS self-defense! I'm protecting us from people planning to kidnap or possibly drug us!"

Alice deliberated for a moment. "No more karate throws." She said firmly.

Lily frowned. "Fine."

"Does nobody care that I'm DYING down here?" Matt shouted weakly from his sprawled position on the floor.

"Oh, I'm sorry," May snickered. "Let me help you up from the terrible wound inflected on you by a TEN-YEAR-OLD GIRL."

"Shut up."

"You know," Chesh said conversationally, "The kid may have a point. We have to tell them everything sooner or later." Lily glowered at the word 'kid', but Chesh pointedly ignored her.

Matt sighed and flopped back down on the ground, lying sprawled like a dead raccoon on a highway. "I suppose you're right. You may as well sit down. It's a pretty long story."

May plopped down, cross-legged, and Chesh slouched down next to her. Alice sat down delicately folding her legs underneath her, and Lily followed suit with one hand wrapped around Alice's arm.

Matt didn't even bother to sit up, just ran his hand through his unkempt blonde hair. "Wow. How do I begin without sounding completely insane?"

"Too late," Lily said, her voice a perfect mixture of sweetness and acidity.

Matt shot her a small glare she couldn't see through his tangled mass of hair and began anyway. "A long time ago, a girl named Alice Liddell was born in England. She had some type of power when she was born, something ancient and strange and purely Wonderlandian. She had so much of this power that, when she was around seven years old, she was somehow able to slip through dimensions and end up in Wonderland."

Alice felt an odd feeling go up her spine and she shivered slightly. Matt's voice, which was usually tired and apathetic, had taken on the tone of a master storyteller. Lily squeezed a little closer to Alice, causing her to smile slightly. Lily had always loved stories.

"When she was there, she met many native residents of Wonderland. First was a sweet, earnest white rabbit that helped her to find her way through the maze of Wonderland... Next, a Hatter, a talented inventor, but so apathetic and distant everyone declared him mad... A cat-boy nobody understood, who was so mysterious and sly he was difficult to approach...A young dormouse, incredibly brilliant, but always sleeping... And a March Hare, who had no real good points, but was obnoxious and annoying." He winced as Mae elbowed him sharply in the ribs and scowled at him. Rubbing his side, he continued his tale. "Anyway, if there are no more INTERRUPTIONS... So she met the unusual residents of Wonderland and managed to befriend them, as eccentric as they were. And as they met her and grew to know her, they realized that Alice had a tremendous power and should be ruler of Wonderland. Rulers in Wonderland aren't decided by elections like they are in the United States. Whoever has the strongest display of magic power is usually given the throne in a peaceful transition. Wonderlandians aren't as barbaric as you people on Earth." His blue eyes stared unseeingly at the ground, clearly lost in his own tale.

"So they went onward, the troop of five, to meet the Queen and demand power for Alice. And along the way, Alice saw the way the poor people suffered and the rich profited, and even at seven she was nauseated by the injustice of it. They made it all the way to the Palace of Hearts and demanded an audience with the queen. Queen Collaire the Second ruled at the time, and she was a kindhearted soul, though not very capable. She was scatterbrained and didn't know of the suffering of her people, so when Alice came with the stronghold of power she had, the Queen willingly gave up her throne. And while Alice reigned, she was able to aid the poor and help end the corruption in the society. After three years, however, the ten-year-old queen became so incredibly homesick she had to return. She missed her single father Henry, her cat Dinah, and her older sister Marie. So she returned, leaving the kingdom in the hands of Collaire's daughter, Collaire the Third. However, once Queen Alice returned home, Collaire seized control of the kingdom, declaring herself and her line the rightful rulers of Wonderland and basically making the country a dictatorship. The friends of Queen Alice knew they were betrayed and sought to overthrow the new queen but were stopped. They tried for years, but they ultimately failed. Then, they decided to go to Earth using the White Rabbit's power to go between dimensions and beg the former Queen Alice to help. However, when they got to the other universe, they discovered their beloved queen had died from a disease called Cholera only a few days prior. They returned to their home, heartbroken to find they had failed. They went to see the Caterpillar, who was a mystic in that land, to see if there was anything they could do to help save their beloved country from the Queen-turned-dictator. There, they learned that Queen Alice had so much power bottled up in her tiny body that she had managed to reincarnate her soul into a newborn baby, also named Alice. The group rushed out to find her, but the Queen had also gotten wind of the infant and had sent her card soldiers out to slay the baby before it could threaten her empire. That started the pattern. Eventually, the original characters died and they were also reincarnated through Alice's power and fondness for them. So, each new generation went out to find the reincarnation of Alice before the card soldiers did, to try to reinstate the true rule to Wonderland. And none of them were successful." Matt finally broke his solemn expression to crack a triumphant smile. "Until today."

"So, I'm the reincarnation of Alice Liddell?" Alice said, shifting position. Her foot had fallen asleep.

"Yep!" said May, beaming. "I'm the March Hare! Chesh's full name is Cheshire- guess who he is!"

Matt stretched slightly. "I'm the Mad Hatter, and Damon is Dormouse."

"So, why did you follow us if you didn't even know Alice was supposedly this reincarnation?"

"We were trying to recruit you to our resistance group. You're clearly the White Rabbit."

Lily looked down at her extremely pale skin, narrowing her red eyes. "I suppose that makes sense. It's prejudicial, but it makes sense."

Chesh blinked. "How is it prejudicial?"

"You assume that just because I'm an albino, I'm clearly the White Rabbit! How fair is THAT to albinos everywhere?"

May stared at Alice with a raised eyebrow, causing the blonde girl to shrug slightly. "She read a biography about Martin Luther King Jr last week. She goes through phases like this all the time. It'll pass soon," she whispered.

"So," Lily said, trying to look nonchalant, "How exactly do we get to Wonderland?" She was trying hard to be the cynical and logical one, but you could tell from the excited gleam in her eyes that she had begun to believe them and was entranced by the thought of a parallel universe. Chesh grinned his catlike grin- it made sense why he was the Cheshire Cat.

"Well, you're the dimension wizard, so you can take us there. We needed to visit the Caterpillar to get here, but you can get us back."

"How am I supposed to do that?" Lily asked. In answer, Matt reached into the pocket of his green jacket and pulled out an old pocket watch. He handed it to Lily, who looked at it in surprise. The gold on it was worn slightly, but obviously well-cared for and cherished. Along the face of the clock were carved odd symbols that were in a language other than English. Alice leaned over to look at it and murmured, "Atal ur wharrif, ti jalkeem talk yunela..."

May stared at her in surprise. "That's ancient Wonderlandian. Not even Chesh or I can read it!"

Matt looked at the clock. "Your pronunciation was perfect. It means, 'Time is fleeting, so cherish each moment'. I'm figuring at this point that you being the reincarnation has to do with this."

Alice shrugged. "Probably?" Lily, ever practical, interrupted to get back on topic."What am I supposed to do with a pocket watch?"

Chesh grinned wolfishly- or cattishly. "Run."

"Run?" Lily repeated, taking a step back uncertainly.

"Run!" He said, jumping forward suddenly. Lily screamed and spun on her heel, running a few paces. The second she began to run, the hands on the clock spun crazily and a purplish black portal appeared right in front of her and grew larger rapidly. With one final terrified squeak, Lily tripped on a stone and tumbled through the portal.

"Lily!" Alice yelled, turning on Chesh. "What did you DO?" Before he had a chance to answer, Alice grabbed him by the collar and threw him into the portal, then leapt in herself. She began to scream as she felt the ground fall from beneath her, only to plunge her into pure unending blackness.


End file.
